How to improve 320x240 TV rips quality

[malish2005]

Hi guys

I recently downloaded some TV rips and most of them are 320x240 in dimension and about 85 mbs in size (AVI files).

This is the main VirtualDub Mod info:

Four CC code: Low motion DivX MPEG-4
Video data rate: 422 kbps

Audio tag: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3)
Audio data rate: 128 kbps

I would really like to improve the quality of the episodes to say something like 750 kbps video data rate and make it roughly 175 mbs in size.

I have tried to recompress the episodes with the same DixX compression to make them about 750 kbps video data rate and they turned up at the size I wanted (175 mbs). The only problem was that when I watched them, they were still the exact same quality (to the eye) but were now taking up twice as much room...

Is there any way to recompress a video from a smaller video bit rate to a larger video bit rate and thus improve the quality of video (to the eye)? Or is it only possible to recompress larger bit rates to smaller bit rates. And also, would I maybe need to resize the dimensions to say something like 480x360?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks alot in advance.

[FulciLives]

You can buy THE SIMPSONS on DVD Video now you know.

They have released the first 5 seasons so far with the rest comming.

If these TV RIPS are 320x240 then they surely aren't recent episodes.

The recent TV RIPS are in higher resolutions and often from HDTV sources.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[malish2005]

Yeah thats true... but I just hand picked the best episodes from all over the place... season 2 to 12

And yeah ur right about the new ones being on HDTV, but I dont like season 16 very much..

[hamambocegi]

you cant really increase the quatlity.

increasing the quality would mean increasing the bitrate but in your case it would ony make the file larger without any quality gain.

what you are doing is some what like trying to make an over zoomed image look like the original. there just isnt enough data ...

but you can use filters like sharpen or blur etc. in vdub on the original files to make them look better ... this way the file size wont changer also ... thats about it

vdub has a bunch of filters, you can try playing around with those, also there are alot of filters for vdub that users have put together too that you can find with a search in google

[malish2005]

thanx alot hamambocegi for ur reply...

[reboot]

The LowMotion mpeg-4 codec isn't the best quality to begin with. I doubt there's much you can do, except maybe filter a bit in virtualdub then frameserve.
Encode to 1/4D1 (320x240) and author.

[malish2005]

reboot, what exactly is frameserve or "1/4D1" or author?

And also, what filter would u recommend? The episodes are a bit greenish on the edges of characters' faces. I tried to take it off by sharpening it a bit, but that greenish glow was still there..

[reboot]

Use the HSV adjust to correct colour.
Use the Levels to adjust contrast/brightness.
Use Sharpen (about 20 is usually plenty!).

Frameserving is having virtualdub send the video directly to tmpgenc, without having to save another compressed avi.
Explore the virtualdub install folder, and click on AuxSetup.exe to install the client.
Open virtualdub, load the avi, apply all filters needed, then click File, start frameserver.
Click Start.
Give it a name, and leave the ending as .vdr
Click Save.
Open tmpgenc, and then browse to filename.vdr as the video input.
In Tmpgenc, select for OUTPUT aspect ratio, 352x240 for NTSC, or 352x288 for PAL.
This smaller resolution is known as 1/4D1.

[malish2005]

reboot, thanx so much for all ur help.. i'll give it a try